Essays on the Gita, First Series (Arya Publishing House, 1922)
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Brahman established in the ^orifice. _ He who KlToWS not here the wheel thus set in movement, evil is his being, sensual is his delight, in vain, O Partha, that man lives/* Having thus stated the necessity of sacrifice, — we shall see hereafter in what sense we may understand a passage which seems aj^ first si^lu to convey only a traditional theory of ritualism and the necessity of the ceremonial offering, — Krishna proceeds to state the superiority of the spiritual man to wprks. *‘But the man whose delight is in the Self and who is satisfied with the enjoyment of the Self and in the Self he is content, for^him there exists no work that needs to be done. He l^s np_ object here_to_be gained by ac^on done and none to be gained by action undone ; he has no dependence on all these existences for any object to be gained/’
Here then are the two id^ls, Y^dist and Ve^ntisL-^standing as if in all their sharp original separation and opposition, on one side the active ideal of acquiring enjoyments here and the highest good beyond by sacrifice and the mutual dependence of the human being and the divine powers and on the other, facing it, the austerer ideal of the liberated man who, independent in the Spirit, has nothing do with enjoyment or works or the human or the divine worlds, but exists only in the peace of the supreme Self, joys only in the calm joy of the Brahman. The next verses create a ground for the r^onciliation .between the. two„ extremes^ j the scar^ is not JiQictjqiL as soon as one ,tUTns__towaiL<k^^ higher truths hut jdesireless action both before and after it is reac hed^ The liberated man has nothing to gain by action, but nothing also to gain by in- action, and it is not at all for any personal object that he has to make his choice. ‘'Therefore without attachment perform eyer the work that is to be done (done for_the sake of the world, loJmsangraha, as is made clear immediately afterward) ; for doing work without attachment man attains to the high£S_t. For it was eyen by works that Janaka and the rest attained to perfection.'* It is true that works and sacrifice are a means of arriving at the highest good, sreyah param avdpsyatha ; but there are three kinds of works, ^ that done without sacrifice fpr perspn^ enjoyment which is entirely selfish and egoistic and misses the true law and aim and utility of life, mogham pdrtha sa jivati, t^t done with desi re, b m with sacrifice and the enjoyment only as a result, oi sacrifice and therefore to that extent consecrated and sanctified, and that done without desire or, attach- ment of any kind. It is the last .3yhich brings^the soul„of man to the hipest, jpqram^dpnoli pu^^ The whole sense and drift of this teaching turns upon the interpretation we are to give to the important words, kqrma^,. br^ma^ sacrificcj
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